This invention relates to new and useful improvements in means of applying chemicals to crops and other plant concentrations.
Chemicals applied to crops include fertilizers, heribicides, insecticides, and fungicides.
Present methods of applying such chemicals include largely spraying, soil-incorporation, and seed treatment.
This invention will be described in particular as a means for treating weeds growing among crops, that is, as an applicator for herbicides.
However it will be apparent that the device may be used wherever the foliar application of a chemical to a crop may be useful.
Conventionally, relatively heavy and expensive spraying equipment is carried by or pulled behind a tractor and a plurality of spray nozzles sprays liquid herbicide or the like over both crops and weeds. This limits the types of herbicides that can be used as obviously a herbicide must be chosen which will kill the weeds but will not damage the crops. Furthermore it will be appreciated that considerable wasteage of herbicide takes place as both the crops and the weeds have to be contacted by the sprayed liquid herbicide in order to ensure that the weeds are killed.
With the cost of herbicides increasing, it is obviously desirable to provide a device which will reduce the amount of herbicide used.